Tortured Imagination

Every once in awhile, I'll see or read something that captures my imagination and then for days or even weeks, I can't get those thoughts out of my head. It's like they spin around over and over again until my mind has finally digested them enough to let them go.

Most recently, I picked up a book called In the Heart of the Sea. It's about the ill-fated whaleship, Essex, a vessel that sunk in the middle of the Pacific Ocean leaving its crew stranded in three lesser boats with inadequate provisions. The crew slowly began to succumb to starvation and dehydration after weeks of floating around praying for favorable winds. The author describes how they starved and suffered and how, eventually, they resorted to cannibalism to sustain themselves.

And for some ugly reason, I can't get this book out of my head. I keep thinking about how awful it would be to be stuck on the ocean, drifting around aimlessly under the relentless sun entirely unable to escape whatever fate looms ahead. I keep thinking about how it would feel to be dying of thirst, to look on the endless horizon and see absolutely no cause for hope. What horror!

I do hope my brain moves on to its next obsession quickly. I could do well without nightmares of being trapped on the sea.

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